Comments

"The expression anal retentive derives from psychoanalytic theory. Sigmund Freud theorized that after birth, a person progresses through a series of stages that, in a healthy individual, would reach an adult state of low anxiety, mental stability, the ability to interact with others, the ability to have a sexual relationship, etc. Freud's stages of normal psychosexual development were the oral stage, in which the mouth is the object of gratification; the anal stage, when the anus is the object, and the child is concerned with the retention or expulsion of feces; the phallic stage, when the child shifts its attention to the genitals, but not in an adult, heterosexual way; and the genital stage, when a person seeks gratification in a sexual relationship with another person.

The interruption of any of these stages results in a fixation, which would have various consequences on an adult. A person interrupted at the late stage of the anal development is an anal retentive, and this is thought to result in adult personality or behavioral traits that include orderliness, rigidity, obstinacy, obsession with rules, meticulousness, and ungenerousness. The adjective anal alone denotes this stage, and hence denotes these traits. Despite its origin in psychoanalytic theory, anal is now in broad use, and is sometimes even considered to be a slang term. Example: "I've got to see a picture exactly from the start to the finish, 'cause I'm anal" (Woody Allen, Annie Hall).

The word anal is first found in English in a 1930 psychoanalytic text; anal retentive appears by the late 1950s."